Wobbly Osprey Flew In Congress, Not At Pentagon

Despite Latest Crash, Lawmakers Like Craft

April 11, 2000|By Tim Weiner, New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — The V-22 Osprey is a classic case of a military program that would not be stopped.

The crash of an Osprey on Saturday night in Arizona, which killed 19 Marines, came after years of arguments inside the Pentagon against building the aircraft, and years of dogged efforts by Congress to protect the $37 billion program.

The military began flying the first five Ospreys six months ago despite questions about the safety and cost of the hybrid aircraft, designed to take off and land like a helicopter but cruise like an airplane.

Senior Defense Department officials tried to cancel the program 11 years ago: Too expensive, too experimental, they said. Congress refused. For four years running, Pentagon officials fought Congress, trying to stop the Osprey.

In 1992, Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe told the House Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon would not spend $790 million authorized by Congress to build three test aircraft. He said that "the V-22 cannot be built to meet the requirements specified. It's an engineering impossibility."

Congress again defied the Defense Department, proclaiming the aircraft to be a potential technological wonder before tests had validated that claim.

"The technology was a revolutionary concept that lit the imagination of lawmakers, and the contractors fueled that fire," O'Keefe said Monday.

Marine commanders wanted it badly. They had developed no other alternative to replace the Vietnam-era Chinook helicopter, and they argued that Marine missions couldn't be served adequately by even the newest Army helicopter. Members of Congress said the V-22 had great commercial potential. And the contracts represented hundreds of high-tech jobs across the country.

Key congressmen, some of them ex-Marines, dug in their heels.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the staunchest advocate of the V-22, on Monday dismissed criticism of the aircraft.

"Those who would come out now and question the program, they don't know what they're talking about," he said. "If there is a technological problem, which I highly doubt, let's look at that."

Weldon represents the Pennsylvania district that includes the aircraft's prime contractors, the Boeing Co.'s helicopter division, in Ridley Park, Pa.

Two test aircraft crashed in the early '90s; one of those accidents, in 1992, killed seven men. The design of the Osprey has evolved throughout the decade to reflect lessons learned from those crashes.

Bert Cooper, a military aviation expert at the Congressional Research Service who retired last month, said two crashes while testing an aircraft "do not tell us anything" about the craft. They are to be expected in testing a new military system like the Osprey, he said.

It may take months to determine whether Saturday's crash was caused by a design defect, a manufacturing flaw or human error.

The Pentagon says it hasn't formally grounded the Osprey, but the Marines won't fly the other four until they know what went wrong.